If you’re reading this, chances are that you’re in the mood to buy an SEO tool/SEO software. And someone recommended you SEMrush. But you aren’t sure just as yet.
Well, you’re in the right place. As someone who’s been using SEMrush for more than 5 years, I’ll be able to give you a pretty good idea on whether to buy this software or not.
It’s not cheap so, you gotta make sure this is the right investment for you, isn’t it?
Let’s see if buying SEMrush is a good idea or not. In every aspect. In detail. Shall we?
But first, let me show you how SEMrush has helped me in SEO for my businesses.
In this article…
SEMrush Long Term Review – Is it Any Good?
Just for the records…I’ve tried pretty much every other SEO software out there, that you can imagine. Free ones, paid ones, small ones, big ones, startup SEO tools, Enterprise SEO tools…you name it.
Everything from Moz to Conductor and everything in between.
One thing I understood using different SEO software is that there is no one best software. Each software is intended for a particular persona (hey, you know what it is, isn’t it?). Moz is for small businesses, Conductor is for Enterprise SEO and such.
So, one of the struggles I’ve had is to find the right SEO software. One that fit me and my business goals.
After trying different SEO tool, I figured that SEMrush is probably the most flexible SEO software, that can work in whichever way you want it to. You can configure it to work for you. That is key.
So, if I were to list out the reasons for choosing SEMrush, they would be..
- SEMrush is a flexible tool that can work for both small businesses, bloggers and even for enterprises.
- SEMrush has probably the most accurate SEO data you can get publicly.
- It has a very flexible pricing plan.
- It has an amazing support community behind it. (@SEMrush, SEMrush Blog)
- I love the team behind it.
- It’s easy to use.
I rarely had an occasion where I thought, wait…”Where do I find this?”
Or…”Wait, this data is missing.”
If at all anything, SEMrush was overwhelming in its own ways. If you know how to configure it, it’ll work for you.
Wait… at this point, you might be thinking that this is all bullshit.
How can everything be so rosy with such a tool? Well, you’re right.
I’ve had my share of issues as well. I’ll get to it later in this article. 🙂
First off, the good things.
Why do I recommend SEMrush
I’m sure you agree that data is everything in SEO. And once you have access to data, you can interpret, slice and dice it in whichever way you like.
Having used SEMrush for so long, I can confidently tell you that you will never run out of enough data.
SEMrush has tonnes of rich, analytical, informational SEO data not just from your own site, but from any website world over.
Any website. Let me emphasize that.
You put in any domain you want SEO data for and SEMrush can pick it up for you in minutes if not hours.
Now, that’s a beauty.
Imagine all the pivoting you can do with the data you get. Whoa!
Which is better Ahrefs or SEMrush?
Or is it Moz?
Well, to be completely honest with you, there are some very competitive SEO tools as well, that comes very close to SEMrush.
In some features, even better. Like Ahrefs and Moz specifically.
SEMrush is known more for its keyword research potential. Ahrefs is known more for its backlink analysis potential.
Both tools work slightly differently. For example, in SEMrush, you can just type in any domain name (even your competitor’s) and it can spit out tons of data about them. Including their top ranking keywords, top backlinks, what pages they rank for etc.
In Ahrefs, they’ve also added a lot of features for keyword research on top of their excellent backlink analysis engine.
But in my personal opinion (and as a paying customer for long years), SEMrush is probably the most balanced, and overall good looking SEO software.
I’ll be honest. Ahrefs gives SEMrush some tough competition.
They have amazing data, an easy to use tool, probably the same set of features etc.
But as you use the tool (Ahrefs) a lot, you’ll find something is amiss.
Maybe it’s the community. Maybe it’s not. But I somehow, end up with SEMrush or someone who’s using SEMrush to answer the question for me.
I feel more confident being with SEMrush, perhaps.
How much does SEMrush cost?
A lot LOL. I won’t lie. But it’s justified. Here’s why.
I use SEMrush for all my projects. And trust me, I have a bunch of them.
And monitoring each of them is a tough job. I usually run into thousands and thousands of keyword sets.
I wouldn’t like a tool that charges me extra every time I add a new project. I don’t want to be worried about limitations.
SEMrush is cool with how many projects I add. Currently, I have some 20 projects added, all of them tracking keywords in thousands and it’s all fine.
Having said that, let us compare SEMrush’s pricing with it’s nearest competitor Ahrefs.
Seen above is Ahrefs pricing plans and seen below are SEMrush pricing plans to compare.
As you can see, SEMrush is slightly pricier than SEMrush purely from a pricing standpoint.
But from a value perspective, I think SEMrush clearly stands out. For about $20 difference in the second tier plan, you have a difference of up to 40 projects and no limits in keywords.
So, if you’re a small size company or a blogger or online marketer with multiple projects, SEMrush is clearly the better value.
What can you use SEMrush for?
Today, you can use SEMrush for the following..
- Excellent competition spying
- Keyword research and generating content ideas
- PPC Keyword analysis (Competition)
- Display Ads analysis
- Backlink profile analysis
- Keyword rank tracking
- SEO Audit & Website Analysis
- Link Building Tool
- Mobile v/s Desktop Keyword Analysis
- Keyword Rank Tracking from different countries
And of course, there are some more features, but I primarily use SEMrush for these features.
Competition Analysis with SEMrush – Is it Good?
Like I mentioned, competition analysis is done pretty well in SEMrush and I love the way they’ve thought about this feature.
Let me show you how it’s done on SEMrush first.
All you got to do is, punch in the domain name, and you get amazing statistics/data about that website including…
- What keywords do the website rank for?
- Which pages are getting the most traffic from Google, and more…
One of SEMrush’s feature that I use a lot is the Position Tracking tool.
Basically, it gives me a weekly/monthly report on which keywords did the website lose or improved ranks.
If I’m spying on my competition, this is extremely useful since I’d be able to know what opportunities I have to inch in.
Also, it’s a great way for me to figure out what new pages do I need to create on my website, in order to catch up with the competition.
And of course, which are the top-ranking keywords and their corresponding pages.
SEMrush will show you the position for each keyword, the actual traffic the website gets in terms of clicks for that keyword, and the expected search volume for it.
This is one feature that I love. In most SEO tools, they’ll show you the search volume but not the actual one. Which always would be different even for number one ranking keywords.
Thanks for rich snippets and all the funky results Google throws on top of a number one result on Google.
Which SEMrush Plan would you recommend?
If you’re a small agency with multiple projects or even a mid-size agency, I personally would recommend the Guru plan (second tier at $199.95/month).
It covers up to fifty projects and that’s more than enough to track competition and your own projects. I have never gotten into a situation where I reached the limit to the number of keywords being tracked.
But, if you’re a blogger, I’d recommend the Pro plan ($99.95/month) to start with.
What are the problems with SEMrush?
So back to my promise.
Like I mentioned in the first part of this article, let me also share with you some of the issues/problems I’ve had with SEMrush.
It wouldn’t be fair otherwise, only to talk about the positives of this tool.
- Weird errors – I’ve got locked out of my account a few times for no particular reason that I knew. I always got emails though that mentioned something about “unusual activity” in the account.
- Wrong ranking data – Sometimes, I’ve noticed that ranks reported by SEMrush are not in sync with real-time Google SERPs data. I mean, I don’t expect it to be and there are a few days latency but sometimes, it just make me worried.
What are some good SEMrush alternatives?
Although SEMrush is an amazing piece of software, there are few good alternatives to SEMrush that gives it some tough competition. Here are some of the best SEMrush alternatives.
- SpyFu – Nails down competition research like anything. Probably even better than in SEMrush. However, other features are not as great as much.
- Serpstat – Probably the closest competitor to SEMrush. Similar looking suite, but there are some minor differences.
- Ahrefs – Like I mentioned above, Ahrefs poses some serious threat to SEMrush with a very similar product and service.
- Moz Pro – Built with small agencies in mind, Moz is a good alternative to SEMrush if you can compromise on some features.
SEMrush Guru Coupon Code
Ok, so can you share the SEMrush coupon code for discounts?
Absolutely. Feel free to use the SEMrush Guru coupon code, that would give you a discount and an extended Free trial by clicking on my affiliate link here (No extra cost to you).
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